Fashion & Beauty

Makeup artist slammed for turning white model black

When makeup artist @paintdatface posted a picture of a white model they had turned into a black woman using makeup, they never expected the firestorm that was about to erupt.

@paintdatface took to Instagram to upload this image, with a disclaimer that it wasn’t about race.

“DISCLAIMER. I want to clearly express the sincere place I am coming from with this transformation. As an artist and visionary, I can become bored of the ‘glam’ and done-up looks that we find all over social media, my page included. I struggle to remain challenged, and as a result of that, my posts have become more manufactured than authentic. This is a transformation that I’ve been holding back from releasing for a while now, solely because of the fear I’ve had of people turning it into a racial scandal against me. THIS IS NOT ABOUT A RACE CHANGE. This is about one woman acknowledging, embracing, and celebrating the beauty of another woman’s culture. I believe we live in a society nowadays that seeks any reason to stomp around town with a picket stick in their hand, fighting ABOUT something, rather than FOR something (and yes, there is a difference!). I didn’t want this to become another reason to stir up negativity. This is, by far, the proudest I’ve ever been of my work and I’m so fortunate to have created it with @annathorsell, who trusted my vision from the very beginning.”

But the post didn’t go down quite as well as they’d hoped and a whole lot of negativity followed. @paintdatface changed their account to private but of course, the photo found a home on Twitter and was shared around for all to see.

Most called it out for being blackface and questioned why the artist didn’t just use a black woman to celebrate black culture.

Some people tried — and failed — to come to @paindatface’s defense, saying it was all in the name of art, but white people commenting about blackface didn’t really go down too well either.

Whatever you think, it’s probably not a makeup style that’s going to catch on or one that any other makeup artist is going to try anytime soon — if ever again.